The graceful courtesy with which President Arthur bowed himself out of the White House was unparalleled.  Never in my memory was a sceptre so gracefully relinquished.  Nothing in his three-and-a-half years of office did him more credit.  I think we never had a better President than Mr. Arthur.  He was fortunate in having in his Cabinet as chief adviser Mr. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen.

My office as a minister compelled me to see, first and foremost, the righteous uplift of the events as I passed along with them.  These were not always the most conspicuous elements of public interest, but they comprised the things and the people I saw.

I recall, for instance, chief amongst the incidents of Mr. Cleveland’s administration, that the oath of office was administered upon his mother’s Bible.  Many people regarded this as mere sentimentality.  To me it meant more than words could express.  The best of Bibles is the mother’s.  It meant that the man who chose to be sworn in on such a book had a grateful remembrance.  It was as though he had said, “If it had not been for her, this honour would never have come to me.”  For all there is of actual solemnity in the usual form of taking an oath, people might just as well be sworn in on a city directory or an old almanac.  But, as I said then, I say now—­make way for an administration that starts from the worn and faded covers of a Bible presented by a mother’s hand at parting.

Mr. Blaine’s visit to the White House to congratulate the victor, his cordial reception there, and his long stay, was another bright side of the election contest.  There must have been a good deal of lying about these two men when they were wrestling for the honours, for if all that was said had been true the scene of hearty salutation between them would not only have been unfit, but impossible.

All this optimism of outlook helped to defeat the animosity of the previous campaign.  A crowning influence upon the national confusion of standards was the final unanimous vote in Congress in favour of putting General Grant on the retired list, with a suitable provision for his livelihood, in view of a malady that had come upon him.  It had been a long, angry, bitter debate, but the generous quality of American sympathy prevailed.  Men who fought on the other side and men who had opposed his Presidential policy united to alleviate his sickness, the pulsations of which the nation was counting.  President Arthur’s last act was to recommend General Grant’s relief, and almost the first act of Mr. Cleveland’s administration was to ratify it.  Republics are not ungrateful.  The American Republic subscribed about $400,000 for the relief of Mrs. Garfield; voted pensions for Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Tyler; some years ago subscribed $250,000 for General Grant, and increased it by vote of Congress in 1885.  The Conqueror on the pale horse had already taken many prisoners among the surviving heroes of the war.  It was fitting that he should make his coming upon the great leader of the Union Army as gentle as the south wind.